From hereI can heareverything right down toeachand every individualfluorescent lights vibrationas theyall-together have triedto sponge up the sound ofeachand every individualscreamfrom down these back streets.

Friday, March 12, 2010

(click the hyperlink above if you're not seeing the playable-video window)

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Here is the first of what I hope will be many more blogs with video of actual performance. This is from a gig we did on February 11th at Bar 303 in Northcote, for Roarhouse, a community volunteer organisation promoting mental health awareness.

My friend Mitch, a travelling filmmaker from France visiting Melbourne, was kind enough to come along and film my set, then cut together this clip. He did a fantastic job. Thanks Mitch.

As for the poem itself:Blog-readers here might be unfamiliar with it, but Alex wrote it for us to perform at his going-away gig in Melbourne just over 2 years ago now, we performed a very jet-lagged version on the Nuyorican open mike in New York shortly thereafter.

Since then, we've done it way-too-many times since we've both returned to Melbourne. The best-performed version to date appears as track #17 on the Product CD. No, seriously I'm not just saying that in a vain effort to entice you to buy my (fucking) CD.

We've agreed to retire it and all our other duets together, indefinitely. So this blog seems like a good way to send it off.

Heavy metalshining like jewelleryshe’s been feeling the winter neglectholding a grudgewon't play nice with other vehiclescan smell a car door opening a mile awayrides up gutters like they aren't therethey don't exist!neither does fatigueor darkor up-hillsdownhill’s exist thoughshe squeals with glee whenever we see one.

Laughs at the windshe keeps taunting it at my expenseshe doesn't care about her riderjust uses me to get herself from A to BShe never gets tiredbut makes me that waydemands respectbut seldom returns itpowered by sweatby doesn't recognise it herself.

As hard as I breathe standing on the peddlesthere's no end to her greedthe insatiability of simple mechanicsshe runs off no batteryneeds no petrolisn't affected by dehydrationcoldor heatmy calories alonekeep her goingAnd that is all she costs to run.

The world's oil could disappearoceans diethe air could become unbreathableshe wouldn't careshe can’t be stopped-all she needs is groundkeeps eating it upwhile barely making a soundshe just keeps humming alongknowing it all belongs behind her.

She’s stubborn and unforgivingunstoppbaleI love her!butdon't tell her I said any of this‘cause she'll hurt me.

A mean old horsewith a vicious temperamentnever exactly be a traffic stopper,

But she won’t be stopped by traffic either.

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'Spokenhagen' was a poetry slam presented as part of a Sustainability festival run in Melbourne recently. Above was my entry, a re-tooled version of one of my oldest poems.